Ref ID : 6055
Vaclav Kristufek, Kinga Ravasz, and Vaclav Pizl; Changes in densities of bacteria and microfungi duing gut transit in Lumbricus rubellus and Aporrectodea caliginosa (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae). Soil Biol.Biochem. 24(12):1499-1500, 1992
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Numbers of bacteria, actinomycetes and micromycetes were estimated in gut content samples of specimens of two earthworm species using the plate count technique and the epifluorescence microscopy method. An increase in numbers of all three microbial groups was observed in the intestine of Lumbricus rubellus during the food passage. The total number of palatable aerobic and faculatively anaerobic bacteria was 7x10E6 g-1 dry gut content in the foregut, but it increased to 16x10E6 and 29x10E6 in the midgut and hindgut, respectively. A similar increasing tendency was also observed in numbers of actinomycetes and micromycetes. In contrast higher numbers of bateria and actinomycetes were detected in the foregut (62x10E6, 6x10E6 g-1 dry gut content) than in midgut (37x10E6, 4x10E6) of Aporrectodea caliginosa, and their numbers did not change significantly from midgut to hindgut. Micromycetes were relatively stable in number in all three gut sections. Number of living bacterial cells, estimated by the epifluorescence microscopy method, in general corresponds well with plate counts, although an increase in number of bacteria was detected from midgut to hindgut of A. caliginosa. Factors which would be responsible for differences in the composition of intestinal communities between two earthworm species are discussed.